The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-05-12

king hau ioSt uucn Oh It's Sacreu CHAR
acter the despot could not be judged by
his subjects because the feudal system
made him 1.-The State" Reason and re-
ligion broke the charm of this hero wOr-
ship and the mobiles deposed the king as
the monks emboldened the people to OPP
pose the pope Then the populace pulled
down the mobiles and began to laugh
at the monks only to kneel before a baser
dol-pseudpscience. The dissemination
of knowledge broke the scepter of the
pretenders to occult wisdom and fanati-
cism took its place. Puritanical seal re-
acted and gave us license which for
time flooded the world and sowed the
seed which has given us communism and
many other noxious plants of the same
family. From the past the people have
learned that the power resides in them,
direct contact with nature and the free
school system have taught them their
strength, and their will is now
omnipotent in politics save as it
is opposed by masses of trained sOldiery.
Has experience also taught them that
they cannot safely forego their claim
that ''all power not expressly resigned
inheres in the people at largeT
Yet John G. Carlisle is one of our fore
most living statesmen and he sees equal
danger from lapse into anarchy and a
tendency towards that paternal govern
ment which has already wrought us so
much woe. Extremes are always near
each other save in the material world,
and Jurisprudence that becomes too
careful of legal technicalities is certain
to bring JudgeLynch on the stage in some
form. So the leaning towards lepresen-
tasive despOtism inaugurated during the
war has been met by liberation and sym
pathy for the communism which has
risen to oppose it, and the popular
strength which spurned the shackles of
the Constitution has been confronted by
the power of the moneyed interest and
the banded army of capital which has
fortified its position in our National
Senate chamber. The revolt which
carried Grover Cleveland into the White
House was the protest of the people
against the tendency towards paternalism
as surely as the defeat of the ''3O6'' was
a Waterloo for the imperialists.
The doctrine of State Sovereignty,
which was designed by the makers of
our primal law as a safeguard against
despotism, fell beneath the sword with
its champions. The sanctity of the Con-
stitutiOn was assailed by the assumption
of reserved powers made by the repre-
sentatives of the people, and the doctrine
that increased taxation was the antidote
for poverty was made by the capital
which realized the fact that in America
bOundless surplus in the Treasury
could be made to represent the standing
armies of Europe.
The victories and influence of the Dem
ocratic party have freed us from dangers
once imminent in all these directions.
But from the perils OF the future only
the despotism of The LAW can save Us.
There must be an authority to which all
shall bow-if we cannot cOnstrain our
selves to obey the law then we must
bow to a Kaisar or kneel to an ism.
Approaching the dangers which will
gather in clouds around our future with
the increase of wealth and luxury, two
thoughtful Englishmen have cast the
horoscope of our nation and arrived at
what is practically the same conclusion.
In The Fall of the Great Re
public Cavendish foretells our
ruin in \. ID. 1000. Then he be-
lieves the influx of ignorance and bru-
tally from every quarter of the world
will have been sufficient to outnumber
at the polls the representative American.
The struggle of n national election will
place the balance of power in the hands
of those who manipulate this mass of
Ignorance. and the Secretary of War will
be the creature of these demagogues who
have dictated the choice of the COM
mander of our army. Then the titled
Englishman paints in horrid colors the
final conflict between brutality and
government and drown in blood
the grandest political experiment
the world has ever seen. But the
prophet is a true product of his nation
and forgets that with us the people, not
the army, is the guardian of the law,
and the Anarchists who attempted to
| subvert our government by force
through a weak or criminal Secretary of
| War would soon learn that America is
not France.
But now arises another English son of
| a prophet and he believes that in time
representative tyranny will replace the
old royal or aristOcratic oppression, and
that our freedom will be- stabbed, like
Rome's Caesar, by its trusted friends and
| sworn guardians. His sneers at our form
of government cannot be answered be
cause sarcasm presents no honest shield
for blow in return, and prophesy is
a weapon which we cannot handle.
Congress has usurped power before and
may do it hereafter and it is possible
that our House of Representatives may
become what Robespierre ::and his assO-
ciates made the servants of the French
people. But We have an abiding faith
that the reverence for the law enter
| tanned in these States will be our saliva
vation-that the Constitution will always
be upheld by public opinion and faith
full Supreme Court. and that watchful
Democracy will always guard these As
the Palladium of our land. Despite the
prophecies of Cavendish and Stevenson
we believe that the New Despotism of
the Representative" should it ever take
ON material shape. Twill be as powerless To
produce the Downfall of the Great Re
public" as were the dangers painted in
alarming colors and presented to us as i'll